Curriculum Design

In 2020, our school decided to review the GCSE teaching programmes to ensure that students were being offered a broad and balanced curriculum. We saw this as an opportunity to look at our curriculum sequencing and ensure that we are teaching the content and skills within in a progressive structure.

At the heart of our curriculum are the KS3 programme of study and the GCSE exam specification. In the past we would always work our way backwards from year 11 to plan our curriculum, but this time, we asked ourselves the question “What are the foundation skills and knowledge needed for our subject?” This became the basis for our year 7 curriculum and our starting point. We then looked at how we can build on this from year 7 to year 11, with each year introducing new skills and knowledge.

Traditionally, we had taught the subject as designing and making projects, but when we reviewed this model we realised that students struggle to design innovatively if they have no concept of materials and manufacturing methods. From our own experiences, we realised that a lot of innovative ideas come from experience, and if the students have had limited exposure to materials and manufacturing methods, they will struggle to come up with creative ideas.

We made the decision to introduce materials and manufacturing methods as our first topic in each year group. This includes material properties, material categories, basic tools and equipment, and accurate working. It doesn’t involve any manufacturing projects with a final take away practical outcome, but instead, we look at quick, short activities which expose the students to a range of techniques, whilst providing them with the opportunity to experiment. Throughout, we encourage them to work accurately, independently and creatively.

Students continue to produce small items that they can take away, but we want to instil in them that not everything has to be perfect and that we value the process just as much as the end project. As engineers, our failures can often be more of a learning opportunity than our successes. Students seem to enjoy this approach and it helps to keep the curriculum engaging.

In our second term we focus on designing for a context. This includes drawing, communication and CAD skills. When students come to present an idea, based on solving a problem, they are encouraged to apply all of the knowledge and skills they have picked up across the year to present and annotate their idea. This includes justification of materials and manufacturing methods, and allows us the opportunity to use information from previous activities and exercises to help embed knowledge of materials and manufacturing.

Since the new GCSE was introduced, we made the decision to cover all material areas, and it’s refreshing to see that students do not feel constrained by material choices when they come to solve a contextual challenge. People in industry we have spoken to say they prefer this approach is. A lot of real life, innovative ideas have come from designers using materials outside of a context. For example, the use of fabrics and fibres in car manufacturing, the use of recycled plastics to make clothing, etc. We want students to see that the possibilities are endless.

In the true style of engineering, we will keep on with our iterative cycle of designing, modelling and evaluating our curriculum to ensure that we are providing the best experience to help our students succeed. Most importantly though, we are seeing more and more students enjoying and opting for the subject at both GCSE and A level with many wanting to pursue a career in Design and Engineering.